Bookclub buys Puerto Rican startup Booksloth
BookClub, an online community platform with a mission to scale empathy and learning through great literature, has acquired BookSloth, a women-led, Puerto Rican tech startup and social mobile app for readers, becoming the first all-women-led, tech-startup acquisition on the island, the companies announced.
BookClub helps users easily discover new reads and unlock each book’s most valuable insights through curated clubs, original video and audio conversations, live discussions with readers, authors, and industry experts, and interactive author events, among other features.
Created in 2018 by co-founders Lincy Ayala, CEO, and Xiomara Figueroa, CTO, BookSloth is a mobile app and passion project created to provide the best reading experience created by and for readers.
“One of the best things about reading is the ability to connect with other readers. We’re very excited about this acquisition, and we look forward to working with the BookClub team to reach more readers and help them find their community,” said Ayala.
“We’re proud to be part of this milestone for the Puerto Rico startup ecosystem and hope this motivates other women entrepreneurs in the industry to push forward and work on their ideas,” she said.
The app has more than 50,000 users who have participated in thousands of book discussions, reviewed more than 340,000 books, and read more than 750,000 books.
BookSloth was part of multiple accelerator programs, including parallel18’s Pre18 and P18, Bravo Family Foundation’s Rising Entrepreneurs Program and the Apple Entrepreneur Camp.
Through the acquisition, whose financial terms were not disclosed, BookSloth will help bolster BookClub’s community engagement, reader connection and social features.
BookSloth’s mission remains unchanged and will continue to serve its existing users, said David Blake, CEO of BookClub.
“BookSloth and BookClub share a common goal — to take readers beyond the page and help them connect and engage with fellow book lovers,” said Blake. “We’re excited to have Lincy, Xiomara and the BookSloth team on board to help us better serve our members through community, connection and meaningful conversations around our love of books.”
With the strength of both teams, BookClub will continue to build innovative products that will serve readers in the best way possible, he added.
